1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multi-type air conditioners, and more particularly, to a multi-type air conditioner having a device for effective removal of foreign matters present in a refrigerant pipeline.
2. Background of the Related Art
In general, the air conditioner is an appliance for cooling or heating spaces, such as living spaces, restaurants, and offices. At present, for effective cooling or heating of a space partitioned into many rooms, it is a trend that there has been ceaseless development of multi-type air conditioner. The multi-type air conditioner is in general provided with one outdoor unit and a plurality of indoor units each connected to the outdoor unit and installed in a room, for cooling or heating the room while operating in one of cooling or heating mode.
However, since the multi-type air conditioner is operative only in one mode of cooling or heating uniformly even if some of the many rooms within the partitioned space require heating, and rest of the rooms require cooling, the multi-type air conditioner has a limit in that the requirement can not be met, properly.
For an example, even in one building, there are rooms having a temperature difference depending on locations of the rooms or time of the day, such that while a north side room of the building requires heating, a south side room of the building requires cooling due to the sun light, which can not be dealt with a related art multi-type air conditioner that is operative in a single mode.
Moreover, even though a building equipped with a computer room requires cooling not only in summer, but also in winter for solving the problem of heat load of the computer related equipment, the related art multi-type air conditioner can not deal with such a requirement, properly.
In conclusion, the requirement demands development of multi-type air conditioner of concurrent cooling/heating type, for making air conditioning of rooms individually, i.e., the indoor unit installed in a room requiring heating is operable in a heating mode, and, at the same time, the indoor unit installed in a room requiring cooling is operable in a cooling mode.
In the meantime, the indoor units, the outdoor unit, and distributors in the air conditioner are in general connected with refrigerant pipeline of a metal. The units in the air conditioner and the refrigerant pipeline, and the refrigerant pipelines are connected by welding. However, there is slag in the refrigerant pipeline formed in the welding and left even after the welding is finished. Foreign matters left thus in the refrigerant pipeline after the welding is finished flows together with the refrigerant, resulting to damage components in the refrigerating system, or reduce a refrigerant flow passage. The reduced flow passage impedes a smooth refrigerant flow, and results in poor cooling or heating of the air conditioner.